HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — A man pled guilty in a 2018 murder case of 29-year-old Natasha Reyes, according to the Houston County District Attorney's Office.
They say 43-year-old Rodney Wayne Helms entered a guilty plea on Tuesday morning for Malice Murder.
Back in November of 2018, Warner Robins police found Reyes dead on her kitchen floor with several gunshot wounds.
At the time, witnesses told police that Helms, a homeless man in the area, went over to Reyes's home because she offered him food and shelter from the rain outside.
Reyes caught Helms trying to steal a handgun and other items from her home, and confronted him.
Helms responded by shooting Reyes several times with the handgun he had stolen, he then left the scene with the stolen goods.
He was found walking toward a convenience store on Feagin Mill Road shortly after the shooting and was arrested.
Assistant District Attorney Alicia Gassett of the Houston Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office said she was thankful the case was brought to justice.
"I am thankful for the Warner Robins Police Department for doing an outstanding job investigating this case and bringing Helms to justice. I also want to thank our office’s investigators, Tom Daly and Jeffery Kujawa, for going above and beyond tracking down witnesses and helping me prepare this case for prosecution. Reyes was a kind young woman who thought she was helping someone in need only to have her life brutally taken from her. I hope and pray that this sentence will bring her family peace and closure to this difficult chapter in their lives," she said.